Skip to main content

Bound for SWERVE!

By
Hey Scott,
Just wanted to get your opinion on the booking plan for TNA's Bound For Glory. I, for one, think they've fucked up royally.
At first the Aries title win in June seemed like it could be a great idea, because they were picking a hot babyface and sticking a rocket up his ass. Sure that screwed over James Storm, but at least they picked SOMEONE to run with.
But now it's becoming obvious that Aries is undergoing a slow heel turn for the match against Jeff Hardy. So I ask: how, in a world in which we all bemoan the CM Punk heel turn, can one justify that decision?
Using Hogan/Bischoff past booking decisions as a basis (decisions which always favor the heels and a SWERVE), I'd say there's three possible outcomes for BFG:
- Aries turns heel, loses to a face Jeff Hardy
- Aries turns heel, defeats Hardy via heel shit.
- Aries seems to turn heel, but SWERVE Jeff Hardy turns heel and wins the title
The chances of a face Aries being elevated by Jeff Hardy in a clean match would shock me more than HHH tapping to Brock Lesnar. (Oh...wait.) Instead you're either getting a heel champ, or Jeff "Victory Road" Hardy as the face champion of the company. All of which make no sense.
And in all of this, TNA blew their chance to make James Storm into the undisputed face of the company. Instead they've branded Storm a loser (Lockdown, BFG Series with a 20-point opening lead) and paired him off in a midcard match against an incredibly cold Bobby Roode. This isn't Roode coming off a year long title reign. Instead it's Roode coming off back-to-back PPV loses and no big wins in months. Christ, their feud was infinitely hotter a year ago. Isn't the point of a slow-burn to make the feud hotter, rather than cool it off?
Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I was just someone who was starting to buy into the hype of TNA getting their shit together, and instead I think they're making the same ol' mistakes at their biggest show. Swerves for the sake of swerves, never going all the way with new face champs, and banking on druggie fuckups in the main event.
Oh, and pushing ABYSS down everyone's throats. (Provided that's where A&8s are going.)
Sincerely,
Worst_in_the_World
Just to clarify something here on my part, I think the Punk-Cena storyline is fine.  I just don't like Cena as a character, don't like Punk as a heel character, and don't think that WWE did a very good job of getting from Point A to Point B and making the storyline work along the way.  Punk was making very valid points to start about how the champion should warrant respect and Cena was being a dick and blowing him off.  That's not good storytelling.  Cena should be like "I do respect you, bro, you're the WWE champion!" and then Punk should have completely fabricated what Cena said in his own mind because he's THE BAD GUY.  Instead, Cena is like "You're right, I don't respect you because I'm John Cena and you haven't beaten me for that belt, except for the two times where you totally did."  Punk is right, so how am I supposed to boo him?  A good heel is someone who THINKS that they're right, but they're actually totally wrong.  

Now, the Aries version is totally different, because Aries is being totally unreasonable right off the bat and also saying straight out that he's jealous of Jeff Hardy.  Heels are insecure people, no matter if they're already World champion, so you've already got a storyline that makes way more sense than WWE's take on it.